A buddy just wrote an article about hockey jersey #'s. I never thought about the history of jersey #'s so I loved reading about how #'s were put in place to sell programs. Also loved the story about the "cheap" Maple Leaf owner who didn't want to lose program revenue when name bars were made mandatory so he used name bars you couldn't read.

Any one have any other good stories about hockey #'s? Maybe how a player came to pick a certain # etc?

Jagr wore 68 because that's the year Czech republic got their independence.
Mario wanted to be different from Gretzky so he flipped 99 to get 66.
Sid was born on 8/7/87.
Geno wears 71 to honor Kharlamov.

Jagr wore 68 because that's the year Czech republic got their independence.
Mario wanted to be different from Gretzky so he flipped 99 to get 66.
Sid was born on 8/7/87.
Geno wears 71 to honor Kharlamov.

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Nope, Czech Republic didn't become independent in 1968, it was the year of the Prague Spring and that's why Jagr chose 68 .

I’m probably more old school, but I find it odd that so many players have numbers greater than 30. I get the double numbers like 44 and 77. And get the flipping of numbers like 81, 61, etc and I’m cool with guys picking numbers that having meaning. Horvat going with 53 to honour a goalie who was supposed to be a member of his junior team who wore 35 but died in a car accident.

But seems odd when I see Anaheim who only have Selannes #8 retired and guys like terry, steel, comtois, etc wear high number. Same in SJ where there are no retired jerseys. They aren’t Montreal.

For me when I see a large number I think one of 2 things. The guy is really good so wants to stand out or he’s a minor leaguer who just got called up and is wearing his pre season jersey number.

The Canucks back in 2015, virtanen and McCann wore 77 and 51 respectively in camp. When they made the opening roster they swapped to 18 and 91. Virtanen got his number while McCann had to swap his numbers from junior. I prefer that when you are a permanent player you shouldn’t wear your training camp number. Change to something you’ve worn in the past or something with meaning.

I’m probably more old school, but I find it odd that so many players have numbers greater than 30. I get the double numbers like 44 and 77. And get the flipping of numbers like 81, 61, etc and I’m cool with guys picking numbers that having meaning. Horvat going with 53 to honour a goalie who was supposed to be a member of his junior team who wore 35 but died in a car accident.

But seems odd when I see Anaheim who only have Selannes #8 retired and guys like terry, steel, comtois, etc wear high number. Same in SJ where there are no retired jerseys. They aren’t Montreal.

For me when I see a large number I think one of 2 things. The guy is really good so wants to stand out or he’s a minor leaguer who just got called up and is wearing his pre season jersey number.

The Canucks back in 2015, virtanen and McCann wore 77 and 51 respectively in camp. When they made the opening roster they swapped to 18 and 91. Virtanen got his number while McCann had to swap his numbers from junior. I prefer that when you are a permanent player you shouldn’t wear your training camp number. Change to something you’ve worn in the past or something with meaning.

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Don’t know what you’re getting at
Most jersey numbers have some kind of meaning behind them, not because someone wants to “stand out”